by David Lim
Success in any venture, whether online or offline, big or small, can almost be 100% guaranteed, when you have enough time to try out different techniques and strategies, so that you know what works well and what doesn't.
But we live in an impatient world - places to go, people to meet, things to do. This online venture is just one of the many things that is on our checklist. And besides, most of us do not have enough money and resources to keep trying.
A great way to shortcut your path to success would be to study the failures of those who have come before you. Failure, in itself, is not bad. There are many successful persons who have said that it is failure that have brought them to where they are now.
So, take some time to look through the following examples of how you can fail. Study them and make sure you understand why failure is nearly certain. You will save a lot of time and money, by not starting and running your Internet business in the same way.
The Power of Free...Not!
Tons of stuff and services on the Internet are offered to you for free. I'm sure you like free stuff, who doesn't right? And the thought of starting an online business and making lots of money, and doing it from all the free services and resources available does have a magic that is hard to resist. Imagine spending next to nothing and earning, perhaps, thousands of dollars each and every month.
But free services do actually come with their own price. Free services will probably have minimal or no support when you encounter problems. Their reliability will not be guaranteed, or will probably not be very reliable. And there probably will be advertisements to support the service. All things considered, there will be many times when the amount that you need to pay for paid services pales in comparison with the additional time spent, hassle and other issues that usually accompanies free services.
When you are just starting out, you will want to spend as much time as possible researching, planning and executing your business plan. And that will be in addition to handling teething issues and closely monitoring the performance of your business.
In other words, you are going to have your hands full when you are just starting out. While free services can have a place in your business, do be careful when using them. Your peace of mind and your time is the most important resource that you have, so do pay for services when you should. The success of your business might depend on it.
Paid to Click (PTC) Websites
There are many sites that will pay you to do simple tasks like reading email, visiting websites, taking surveys, searching, chatting, posting, playing games, installing apps and even listening to the radio.
If you diligently work at it, you can make some decent pocket money from these sites. An example of such a site is ClixSense (http://www.clixsense.com/?9189764), where members are paid to click on ads, complete surveys, install and run apps on their phones and tablets, play games on their computer, listen to the radio and perform microtasks. They have a forum and you can see the earning stats of the some of the posters in the forum.
I did a tiny sampling of about 15 users of the forum who choose to show how much they earned and found the average earnings to be about $15 per month with the 3 highest earners coming in at $28, $53 and $108 per month. Most of the rest of the members were averaging about $1 - $10 per month.
That's actually pretty good pocket money considering that it comes from only one site. If you were a member of multiple sites similar to ClixSense and you were to work hard at each site, an income in the region of hundreds of dollars per month should be possible.
But you do have to spend time each and every month to earn this kind of money. So, if you are starting or running an online business, that is time that you should be spending on your business. In the long run, the time that you spend on your business will pay off more handsomely than the time that you spend clicking on ads, answering surveys and installing apps.
MLM Programs
You may be lured by MLM programs promising easy money. The advertisements will typically have words like "prelaunch", "forced matrix", "spillover", "explode" and "get in early".
The advertisements will generally give the impression that the programs are new, and that if you get in now, you can sit back while somebody else builds your downline, or does the work, for you.
Unless you have some insider information, I am going to bet my botom dollar that by the time you find out about a (launched just minutes ago) program, many thousands before you would have found out about the same program...and they will be sitting in the choice spots that you thought was yours.
There is good money to be made in legitimate MLM programs, but it still boils down to pure hard work and determination. If you are joining an MLM program to enjoy a free lunch, you are probably better off saving your time and money for something else.
Automated Marketing Systems
And then there are those marketing automated systems. Invariably they will start with what you already know - that Internet marketing is hard work, that it isn't easy to succeed, and that it takes a lot of perseverance.
They will continue by claiming that after years of experimenting, they have come up with an automated system that does the recruiting, selling, marketing or whatever else needed. A system that guarantees your success.
All you have to do is to follow their system to the letter, and you are on your way to riches.
There are many variations on the above theme, too many to go into here. Generally, you will be asked to pay a one-time fee, or a monthly fee, or do some grunt work and you will get a reward that is ridiculously disproportionate to the work, or intelligence, or money that you put in.
If you are tempted, as I have been, ask yourself this question:
"If I did develop such a system, would I sell it at such a low price?"
or
"If I did develop such a system, would I be selling it at all???"
Online Shopping Malls
There are online shopping malls with a wide assortment of products. You can open a shop in the mall, and stock your shop with everything from pencils and rulers to the kitchen sink, and more. The rationale is that with a wide selection, there will be something for everybody.
You can promote your shop in free classifieds, FFA links, social media, traffic and banner exchanges. The more enterprising might pay to get traffic to their shops.
You will definitely get traffic from all that advertising but it will mostly be non-targeted traffic and convert poorly. While there might be some sales, it is unlikely that the profits generated will be enough to cover the advertising cost or the time spent.
Web surfers are generally more interested in looking for specific information rather than shopping. If you were to offer them what they need first, and then attempt the sale, you would probably do very much better.
That means you would do very mush better by building a website with a narrow focus, catering to a specific audience. And then stock your site with the appropriate products.
The Shiny Object Syndrome
I have kept the best for last. If I have to name just one reason why you can fail to make money on the web, I would point to the Shiny Object Syndrome as the number one reason.
As the owner or potential owner of an online business, the Shiny Object Syndrome can be defined as the tendency to be distracted by the latest money making fad on the Internet that promises to make you money faster and easier than that last money making fad. And these fads are all over the Internet, intruding into your social media accounts, email and even your smartphones.
And if you have been to the sites of any of these fads, they are very persuasive. They know how to push your buttons and make you want to drop everything and sign up with them.
If you were to actually sign up, you just might be able to make some good money - provided that you put in lots of time and work, much more than the ads would have you believe. And before you start really making money, the going is probably going to start getting tough.
And then you'd probably stumble onto the next shiny and new Internet fad. You sign up and the cycle starts again.
So, get your act together. Do your homework and when you have committed yourself to your online business, stick with it and see it through.
I'm sure that you can think of lots more ways that a business can fail on the Internet. On the whole, I think you will agree that failures can probably be traced back to one or more of the following factors:
a lack of understanding of the Internet and Internet marketing
a lack of drive
a lack of patience
greed
We are all subject to the above "sins". Get it under control, do your homework and learn from the failures of others, and you WILL start making money from the web.
David Lim is the webmaster of http://QuittingYourJob.com, a business resource for the entrepreneur looking to start, or grow an online home-based business.
This article may be reprinted freely, provided no changes are made, and provided the resource box above follows the article.